In the past, traffic-control and signaling personnel generally only had pole-mounted stop signs and their own body movements to rely upon to signal others and direct traffic. For example, the person's hand and arm movements could be used to direct oncoming vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. to stop, to turn a specified direction or to proceed in their present direction. When a pole-mounted stop sign is used, the person has a larger signaling device to indicate that oncoming traffic should stop, but the person's hands are also fully-occupied holding and maintaining the sign in its operative position.
One prior attempt to improve on this original situation is a glove that includes an equilateral triangle formed from a reflective material on the palm and back of the glove. Each triangle points upwardly toward the fingers of the glove, and more particularly between the second and third fingers of the glove. The palm triangle is a reddish reflective material, which conveys to others that they should stop, and the back triangle is a yellowish reflective material. The gloves have been used for traffic-direction purposes because the upwardly oriented triangles can be used for signaling when the user points his or her hand to the side, in which case the tip of the triangle points in the direction of the user's fingers and indicates to others that they should proceed in the indicated direction. Similarly, when the user's hand is pointed so the palm faces others, the red, upwardly oriented triangle indicates that they should stop.
The above-described glove has made it more convenient for traffic-control personnel to direct traffic without having to constantly hold and position a pole-mounted stop sign. Furthermore, the glove described above has enabled such traffic-control personnel to be more visible at night when used to control vehicular traffic, where the headlights of oncoming vehicles reflect off of the reflective material on the glove to illuminate that material for better viewing by the driver of the oncoming vehicle.
Unfortunately, these signaling devices still fail to address many signaling situations. Because the gloves do not produce their own light, they are dependent upon light being shined upon them to give them the desired visibility. Therefore, they are ill-suited for use in situations where the oncoming vehicles or people do not have a forward-oriented light, such as a headlight.
Similarly, when the above-described gloves are worn by bikers, namely, riders of motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, etc., the arrows on the back of the user's hand direct traffic toward the biker instead of away from the biker. For example, when a user rides a bike with a generally straight handlebar, such as a motorcycle, scooter or mountain bike, the arrows on the gloves point generally forward of the bike in a converging path. When used by a rider of a 10-speed or similar bike with downwardly curved handlebars or a bike with an AEROBAR structure, the arrows would point almost directly toward each other. In both cases, oncoming traffic will see reflective arrows directing the traffic generally toward the bike being ridden, instead of away from the bike. Especially at night, when the rider of the bike may not be otherwise visible, this may be confusing to the oncoming motorists, who may steer in the indicated direction and toward the biker.
The present invention overcomes these drawbacks by providing a signaling glove which produces its own light, thereby eliminating the need for oncoming traffic to generate light to reflect off of the reflective material on the glove. Additionally, the present invention provides a signaling glove adapted for use by bikers to direct traffic safely away from the biker.
In brief summary, the invented glove includes a body portion that is worn on a user's hand and at least one reflective surface mounted on the body portion. In some embodiments, the glove further includes a light source with a light-emitting unit adapted to illuminate the reflective surface. The light-emitting unit is preferably housed within a pocket formed at least in part by the reflective surface. When the light-emitting unit is housed within the pocket, the reflective surface includes a transparent or translucent region overlying the light. The reflective surface may be adjustably positionable on the body portion of the glove to enable a user to interchange the reflective surfaces and to orient the reflective surface to best fit the user's current signaling or other needs.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent as the specification is read with reference to the below-described drawings.